BEGONIA RAMENTACEA. 
(Scaly Elephant's-ear.) 
Class. Order. 
MONCECIA. POLYANDRIA. 
Nattiral Order. 
BBGONIACE^E. 
Generic Character.— Male flowers— Calyx wanting. 
Corolla polypetalous ; petals commonly four, unequal. 
Female flowers — Calyx Avanting. Corolla with from 
four to nine petals, generally unequal. Styles three, 
bifid. Capsule triquetrous, winged, three-celled, many- 
seeded. 
Specific Character.— Plant an evergreen perennial. 
Stem short, thick, short-jointed, somewhat tortuous. 
Leaves obliquely ovate, with a short acumen, many- 
nerved, entire, bright green and smooth above ; be- 
neath sanguineous, and studded over with numerous 
fascicles of seta. Petiole as long as the leaf, or nearly 
so, tapering upwards, covered with fringed depressed 
scales. Stipules ovate, concave, dry and membranous 
at the margin ; exterior surface beset with seta. 
Peduncles longer than the petiole, clothed with 
similar scales. Floivers pale blush. Capsule san- 
guineous. 
The genus Begonia appears to have been established by Linnasus, and 
commemorates a French patron of Botany, M. Michael Begon. The species are 
common to both the Old and New World ; but by far the larger number of those 
already discovered belong to the latter, and, amongst them, the handsome and 
somewhat singular species before us, which was imported some years ago from 
Brazil, to the nursery of Messrs. Young at Epsom. A specimen which flowered 
there in 1840 furnished the subject of our representation. 
Since then, specimens which have flowered at different Nursery establishments 
in the vicinity of London, and especially one exhibited at a meeting of the Horti- 
cultural Society last November, by Mr. Jackson of Kingston, have fully confirmed 
its worth as an ornamental species. It is decidedly one of the finest of its class ; 
but, as it only admits of a limited propagation, it is far from being a common 
plant. 
Perhaps its nearest ally is the B. Barkerii. That species, however, is 
sufficiently distinguished by its coarser habit, less numerous scales, and the absence 
of the fine sanguineous hue on the under side of the leaf, which adds so much to 
the beauty of the present. B. stigmosa, a species with large dark spots on the 
leaf, appearing like decayed portions, and B. heracleifolia, both assimilate in 
possessing scaly appendages on the petioles and under surface of their leaves, but 
admit of no comparison in point of excellence. 
B. ramentacea is a dwarf plant with very close-jointed stems, almost hidden 
with its beautiful foliage, above which the flower-stalks rise a few inches, and 
VOL. XII. NO. CXXXVI. L 
